Adirondack Phantoms

The Flyers have recalled left winger Tye McGinn from the Adirondack Phantoms on Monday morning according to their press release.

The move is in anticipation that forward Zac Rinaldo won't be able to play past Tuesday's game in New Jersey. In Sunday's loss to Buffalo, Rinaldo suffered a laceration to his leg that required 20 stitches.

In their first move during the free agency period, the Philadelphia Flyers brought back a familiar face to fill their backup goaltender position, signing Michael Leighton to a 1-year, $900k contract. Leighton replaces Sergei Bobrovsky, who was traded from the Flyers to the Columbus Blue Jackets on June 22 in return for three draft picks.

The Philadelphia Flyers have taken a page out of the Los Angeles Kings book and hired one of it's former members of the coaching staff to coach in their system.

Philadelphia has hired former Kings head coach Terry Murray to be the head coach of the Adirondack Phantoms of the AHL.

Murray started out last season in his fourth year as head coach of the Kings, but was fired on December 12 when the eventual Stanley Cup champions were 13-12-4 and in 12th place in the Western Conference.

While Kevin Poulin has been enjoying his deserved Pou-LIN-sanity awards and rewards his partner between the pipes Anders Nilsson has gone quietly about his job setting records of his own. On Saturday night he tied the Bridgeport Sound Tigers record for consecutive wins by a tender blocking 26 of the 28 shots he faced in a win over the Adirondack Phantoms. The next afternoon he broke the record previously held by Nate Lawson recording his eighth straight win. In this win over the perennial powerhouse Hershey Bears he allowed only one of the 21 shots he faced to cross the line. Not giving up a goal in overtime he went on to stop all 5 shots he faced in the shoot-out.

Yesterdays game was a rare one o’clock matinee and after playing Sat. at 7pm, Sun. at 3pm Anders picked up the first AHL shut out of his career stopping all twenty-six shots sent his way by the Albany Devils. Team record nine wins in a row for this Swedish behemoth, who looks like a transformer when fully dressed.

The Checking Line Flyers Edition's own Daniel Gold was live on-site at the AHL Outdoor Classic game at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia last Friday. The Adirondack Phantoms defeated the Hershey Bears, 4-3 in overtime.

Enjoy this up-close look at the action, and please check out Daniel's website!

After all that he had been through, Michael Leighton didn’t expect his return to Philadelphia to be anything like it was on Friday.

His tenure in Philadelphia has been nothing short of odd. In 2009, Leighton went from unemployed to starting in the 2010 NHL Winter Classic in Boston and eventually being the savior that led the Flyers to their first Stanley Cup Finals berth since 1997.

Dream situation, right? Little did Leighton know that the already roller coaster ride he was on would continue and that his impact on Philadelphia Flyers hockey would be both glamorous and infamous.

That brings Leighton’s career to Friday night in Philadelphia. Two years removed from playing on the outdoor ice in Boston, Leighton started for the Adirondack Phantoms in the AHL Outdoor Classic in front of 45,653 people.

For the Adirondack Phantoms, playing outdoors brought back some great childhood memories of playing with the fresh air in their face.

But for Shane Harper, his top memory will be how he won an outdoor hockey game for his team. For his career, it was "definitely number one for sure" in where the game winning goal ranked, leaving Harper with a hockey memory he will never forget.

Harper's goal gave the Phantoms a come-from-behind win against the Bears, 4-3, in the AHL Outdoor Classic. It capped off a wonderful week of outdoor hockey at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.